This invention relates to a method and a machine for compressing and cutting random loaded scrap metal.
Known are presses and guillotine-presses for preparing charges of scrap metal. The presses of this kind comprise suitable dies providing three-dimensional compression to produce cubes, balls, and the like, of compacted scrap metal. A basic shortcoming of these machines is their absolute cycle discontinuity and the excessively long time required for each pressing cycle.
Modern guillotine-presses already represent a step forward in the direction of a more continuous type of operation, since they are equipped with a conveying line which speeds up the operation; the material being conveyed to an outlet where a guillotine performs spaced apart cuts, and the feed charge being picked up each time by a plunger type of pusher and moved forward and compacted simultaneously, generally for a limited number of cuts. It is this very step that slows down the production cycle.
Further deficiencies of a constructional and functional nature are then experienced, which largely result from the design of such conventional machines. For example, the cutting operation generates couples and rotational movements of the workpieces, and if the latter are not stopped near the guillotine, occasional stresses are generated in even remote faces, which may damage them or require excessive strengthening provisions. The side and lengthwise compressions require expensive moving parts, with added forces and only modest results, since the forces are divided over a large surface area.